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The native communities selected were seven: Limngema, Santa Isabel de Bahuanisho,Palestina and Puerto Bethel, Panaillo, Patria Nueva and Saposoa. The first four

communities are located upstream of the Ucayali River. The three remaining communities

are located downstream of the same river. The central point of reference is the city ofPucallpa. Palestina and Puerto Bethel are located in a tipishca, (an old river curve ) where

the river used to slide by. Today it is like a pond. This has influenced the communitiesrecent activities. Panaillo community is located at Aguaita River mouth, where it joins theUcayali River. This nearness causes the community to be flooded totally during the rainy

season when the river water levels are high.

Information on these seven communities was collected in various phases. The first phasewas that of reconnaissance or first sight. This first phase allowed us to identify persons or

groups as well as community authorities that could be interviewed. In the case of

communities located upstream of the Ucayali River, 2 or 3 people were identified in each ofthem as possible interviewees. In general, the selected people were the leaders, in other

cases, community authorities, people with a long permanence time in the community or

farmers ready to dialogue. We always look for those people with more know-how aboutmanaging the natural resources of the area.

If the interviewees showed willingness to talk, the interview continued. In many cases, this

did not work out. In some communities, we were able to interview 1 or 2 people, in other

cases we were unable to interview any person at all. Sometimes this was because of thetime spent in each community.

In this same phase, but within the communities located downstream of the Ucayali River,

the interviews that took place were both individual and in groups. During groupinterviews, in many of the questions asked, the group members entered a discussion-

conversation session between them before giving an agreed-upon answer. This was duly

annotated in the present work. These visits took place together with NON NETE NGO,an institution made up of members of that ethnic group. They helped in the interviews with

an interpreter to improve our communication and direct understanding. A total of 24

people were interviewed, of which 13 were selected to create the database of localecological knowledge.

In the Panaillo, Saposoa, and Patria Nueva communities training work on management of

vegetable farming in tropical climates in the agricultural schools took place, as well astomato farming (lycopersicum sculenta), cucumber (cucumis), cabbage (Brassica

campestris), radish (Raphanus sativum), caigua (Cyccclanthera pedata), spring onion

(Allium spp).

In the second phase or second visit in both sectors, we looked for information on the

farmers selected. The interviews took place with new questions or complementaryquestions to those already obtained to clarify answers already given due to the fact that in

some cases there were contradictions in the assertions made by the farmers and

contradictions in the literature examined. Additionally, we visited the farm plots duringworking days and reviewed the information obtained periodically . The most important

factor being the availability of working hours for interviews so as to acquire the required


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level of confidence. The interviews centered on the elected topics and sometimes, it waspossible to note their great knowledge about medicinal plants and their use (recollections).

The interviews were not formal, they were taped with the interviewees permission, and, insome cases, were written down so as to enable the recognition of names and shipibo terms.

The shipibo language is the official vehicle of communication of the Shipibo Conibo ethnicgroup.

The information acquired was loaded into the AKT5 database. Constant revisions took

place identifying the source (farmers name), and the name of the community. Then we

proceeded to elaborate a schematic presentation of the information utilizing AKT5software, thus elaborating the knowledge base.

The third phase of the study, also called the verification phase, consisted in selecting, atrandom, 25% of the questions asked in the interviews of the first two phases and going

back to the communities to interview other inhabitants that did not participate in the

previous interviews

Results

Results obtained are presented according to the subjects studied. These results reflect the

knowledge that different members of the communities interviewed have, no matter theirlocation with respect to Pucallpa, the capital of the region.

Soil Fertility

In figure 1 it is possible to observe the reasons the natives attribute to the fertility of the

soil, and at the same time, the causes or relations for little fertility and the consequences

that originate from low fertility soil. They attribute good fertility to dark non-clayer soil,soils with humidity and organic content. The presence of river water volume (larger volume

of water in the rainy season) has an influence in the increase in nutrient content of the soil

and, therefore, in the soils fertility. The decomposition of leaves increases the soilsfertility. Additionally, the time the soil rests have an influence on existing nutrient content.

They also said that a low fertility soil originates changes in the development of crops, such

as Indian corn, yucca or cassava (Manihot esculenta ), and bananas (Musas spp. which are

native communities main crops).

When the soil has poor fertility, the main weeds that indicate such condition are shuashui

(scientific name not identified), arrocillo (Rottboellia exaltata), and gramalote (Brachiariamutica). Mapu mai (hard soil) and mai joshin (red soil) are very low fertility soils where,

although crops do grow, they recognize that and observe that the fruit does not develop,

like for example, corn stalks are small, plants are small, banana clusters have smallquantities of fruits, and are low in quality. Therefore, production is low since the crop is

less.


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Figure 1 - Graphic of soil fertility relations analyzed with the AKT5program

Soil Types

The Shipibo Conibo ethnic group identify the following types of soil:

-Camanin Non floodable land-Maicon Floodable land apt for agriculture

-Tasba Canin Floodable land, floodplain-Mai huiso Black land

-Mai joshin Red land

-Mana mai High non-floodable land

-Naco Mud-Mapo mai Clayer land

-Mashi mai Sandy land

The first column gives the name of soils in the Shipibo Conibo language.

Floodable Lands

The management of natural resources by the communities that live next to the UcayaliRiver centers around the flooding periods that take place annually. Each river growths

during the months of December to April. When the river moves back, it leaves black soil

with greater humidity and therefore, with better fertility. It also leaves beaches that the


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people use to sow their annual crops such as Indian corn (Zea maiz), rice (Oryza sativa),caupi (Vigna unguiculata )and peanuts ( Arachis ipogea) (fig. 2)

The common varieties of bananas do not tolerate flooding due to their superficial rootssystem, which tends to rot and the plant tends to fall. This does not happen with the

sapucho and campen varieties, which tolerate these flooding periods. In somecommunities tuberous roots such as sachapapa (Dioscorea sp) and dale dale (Calathea

allouia) are not cultivated due to the flooding. They said that these native crops are very

important to their diet. The type of yucca (cassavaManihot sculenta) to be sown has to do

with the flooding periods. They prefer using the six-month variety or varieties with

vegetative periods of less than a year. The Shipibos prepare themselves for this lack of foodperiod by preparing faria, made out of yucca flour.

Figure 2 - Important relations relative to land flooding

Species tolerant of flooding periods

The following species of fruit trees have been identified as tolerant of flooding periods:

Bread Tree (Artcarpus sp.)

Champion Banana (Musa sp.)


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Sapucho Banana (Musa sp.)

Mango (Manguifera Indica)

Camu Camu (Myrciaria sp.)

Coco (Cocos nucifera)

Poma Rosa (Sysigium jambos)

Caimito (Pouteria caimito)

Shimbillo (Inga sp.)

For these two last species contradictions arose between communities. In some

communities they said that both species tolerated flooding. Others did not. According to

the literature revised, only the caimito species is tolerant of flooding. These are thecontradictions established based on the knowledge of the communities, as well as the

information found in the literature.

Wood Species

Within the wood species tolerant of flooding the farmers identified the following:

Bolaina (Guazuma crinita)

Capirona (Callycophyllum spruceanum)

Quinilla (Manilkara bidenta)

Lupuna (Chorisia sp.)

Caoba or Mahogany (Swithenia macrophila)

Moena (Ocotea sp)

Cedro or Cedar (Cedrella spp)

Catahua (Hura crepitans)

Clear-felling and burn

The Shipibo Conibo people carry out clear-felling and burn according to the number of

tree trunks and stakes the plot has. This activity helps all farm tasks such as sowing and

weeding. Also, the ashes that result from the burning contribute to the soils fertility,increasing the nutrient content ad making some plagues such as termites disappear. (Figure

3).

Plagues

The most important plague is the curuince (Atta cephalotes), a type of defoliating ant thatattacks yucca crops and fruit species. This plague only exists in places where there is no

flooding (Figure 3). Communities where flooding is total do not have problems with this

plague.


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Figure 3. Relationship between clear-felling and burn in the different productive processesin flooding soils.

Conclusions and Recommendations

Resources management is based on flooding periods and flooding soils. The Shipibo

Conibo agricultural knowledge is not very old, that is why, they have a medium knowledge

about the types of soil.

Conflict of knowledge between farmers and farmerliterature were found, as well as localand scientific knowledge. This helps to investigate a number of assertions from all sources

of information.

The Shipibo Conibo people have a great knowledge of medicinal plants and their principal

activities are hunting and fishing, which are the most important sources of food in their

daily lives. In recent years, they have been learning more about agriculture, an activity to

which they are dedicating more time.

Our recommendations are as follows:

To study more about the flow of knowledge: ancestral, experiences, extentionist, etc.

To clarify why there is a conflict of knowledge.

To compare knowledge basis in contrasting places.

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